Saturday, February 16, 2013

February 5th's photo prompt from Katrina Kennedy was 'Nap'. I captured these Mourning Doves trying to catch a view winks and stay out of the snow. This is one of my favourite birds and I love hearing its soft cooing. I was very surprised to see these two on our deck and ran to get my camera right away. I didn't want to scare them away so I took the pictures from the inside of our French doors. I accidentally banged the window a couple of times with my lens but it didn't seem to bother them at all. They just looked at me and then went back to relaxing. There stayed on the deck for a couple of hours and eventually moved under one of the benches when it started to snow. I haven't seen them since but am hoping they come back again to visit or maybe catch a few winks.

Tomorrow's photo prompt is "Colour from the Garden". Since the only colour in our garden right now is white snow, I decided to take pictures of the tulips and daffodils we bought to add some colour to our dining room. The tulips are in a vase but the daffodil bulbs will be planted in our garden come spring time.

One of February's Photo Challenges is "More than One". Peg suggested I use marbles. I wanted to take the pictures outside but the new snow made it a bit challenging. I decided to settle for the dining room table. I played with various angles and lenses. My Macro seemed to work best. I chose these 2 angles and played with various presets in Lightroom.
One of our godsons LOVES playing with marbles and is just learning the different rules. His birthday is in April and Peg and I thought we could make him a picture book with descriptions of different game versions and rules. Hopefully all the snow will be gone in time so I can take my next marble pictures out in the sand.

Pictured above is our Angel of Happiness. Unfortunately, shortly after taking this shot, she fell off the table and broke. Not so sure she's still happy.
Took this picture using my black cloth background. During processing I used the brush to make what are supposed to be stars.

For this entry I was to take a picture showing pride. Although I am in this picture and it was taken with my camera, it was my friend Debbie Markous who snapped this shot. She was in charge of taking pictures while the Governor General of Canada, David Johnston, was visiting one of our schools. He and I are pictured here discussing the benefits of robotics in school. We were both impressed with what today's students are capable of doing with technology. It was a privilege to speak with such a human and empathetic gentleman. He and his wife touched us all with their enthusiasm and support.
I was proud of our students and staff and honoured to be part of this event.

Okay, I promise this will be the last post using the word love or hearts, for a while anyway. Used a combination of Scrabble letters and wooden hearts. Gave it a red tint during post editing. This word may only be worth 7 points during a Scrabble game but outside of the game, priceless.

Got this idea from Katrina's Valentine's Day Photo Prompt which was, you guessed it, LOVE. Her picture really caught my eye and I wanted to try the post editing. I'm pretty happy with the results but now that I'm looking at it, realize the L (or 7) is at too much of an angle. The cards I used are the 7, Queen, Ace and 3 of Hearts. The editing was pretty easy.

So, I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Hopefully, love is in the cards for you today and everyday.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

The theme Katrina assigned for today was "A Pop of Red". I tried a few things and decided I would use red but have the white 'pop' out. I used cinnamon hearts as the background and one white sweetheart among the bunch. Normally, I don't like the effects of a flash but this time around I like the reflections it created on the cinnamon hearts. I also used the Hawaii Five-0 preset in Lightroom to have the red of the candies and writing appear to be different shades of the same red.
I wish you and your families much amour (love) and happiness.

Yep, more hearts. Guess the month of February and St. Valentine's Day is influencing my shots these days.
We bought this wreath at Michael's a couple of years ago. We have it hanging in the dining room as it goes with our decor. Consequently, we can have it up all year long.

One of the themes from January was circles. I thought the control panel of our stove might be an interesting idea. I put it in grayscale during processing and touched up some of the glares. As in the previous photo, there are patterns. It's interesting how many different types of patterns you can have.

The theme for February 2nd was shadows. It was a sunny but cold day. I tried to take the pictures inside but didn't get anything I really liked. I decided to venture out on the deck for a few minutes. While not my best photo, I like the pattern of lights. I decided to put it in grayscale to have more colour unity.

Thought I stick with the heart theme from the previous posting. Got this idea from Katrina Kennedy's CY365 photo idea of the day, "Heartfelt Sentiments". While out today I picked up some heart candies. While setting up the shot I thought I'd try one. I'm sure if it's me or the candies that have changed but they're not as tasty as I remember them to be. Guess that's good news as it means less calories ingested.
Anyway, I set up the candies on our dining room table. I decided to add a 'Dust Storm' edit during processing in Lightroom. I find that the filter helped bring out the font on the candies and the grain in the table.